1 . A huge fire broke out on 2 September 1666 in London. The fire, known as the Great Fire of London, was the worst fire in the history of London. It burned down more than three quarters of the old city.

The fire started in the very early hours of Sunday morning in the house of the king’s baker. A strong wind blew the fire from the baker’s house into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.

At that time, most of the buildings in London were made of wood, so it was easy for the fire to spread quickly. By eight o’clock, three hundred houses were on fire. By Monday, nearly a kilometre of the city was burning along the Thames River. On Tuesday, which was considered the worst day, the fire destroyed many well-known buildings, including the old St Paul’s Cathedral.

The fire burned until finally hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire were destroyed to create a firebreak. The fire then died out eventually with nothing left to burn.

1. Why is the fire of 1666 called the Great Fire of London?

A．The fire broke out in the capital of England.

B．The fire was the worst fire in the history of London.

C．People in England will never forget the fire.

D．The fire spread fast into Thames Street.

2. Where did the fire break out?

A．In the house of the king’s baker.

B．In Thames Street.

C．In the house of the baker’s neighbour.

D．In St Paul’s Cathedral.

3. Why did the fire spread quickly?

A．It started in a baker’s house.

B．It broke out on a Sunday morning.

C．A hotel was next to the baker’s house.

D．Most of the buildings in London were wooden.

4. What was destroyed in the fire?

A．The old St Paul’s Cathedral.

B．Hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire.

C．Hundreds of wooden houses.

D．All of the above.

2 . Each year, 150,000 people hike Scotland’s Ben Nevis — Britain’s highest mountain. Many choose to take the so-called tourist trail, the rocky path which winds its way to the peak. Few realise that this path was initially carved out in 1883 for a very unique scientific expedition.

In the late 19th century, a key question of science was how depressions, storms and other severe climatic events form in the atmosphere. By 1875 mountain observatories were being established across the US, Mexico, India, France, Germany and Russia. Keen to gather similar data for Britain, the Scottish Meteorological Society decided to build a weather station at the top of Ben Nevis.

And so began a remarkable experiment. From 1883 to 1904, a few hardy individuals lived year-round in a small stone hut, surviving on tinned food and making hourly recordings of everything from atmospheric temperature to humidity (湿度), wind speed to rainfall. In total they made almost 1.5 million observations.

“They were living in very severe weather conditions: 100mph winds were not uncommon, and the temperature would drop to -15°C at times. The main danger they faced was that they were very close to the edge of the cliff (悬崖). If you weren’t careful, you would disappear off the cliff completely,” says Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading.

However, by 1904, the Scottish Meteorological Society could no longer afford the observatory’s running costs. It was closed down and the data largely has remained hidden in the dusty pages of archives (档案馆) ever since.

Today, plans are underfoot to build a new modern observatory on the ruins on the former site — with automatic measuring devices rather than human data collectors. “We haven’t had any long-term observations up there for a long time now, and this would give us information straight away on how the climate at the top of the mountain has changed,” Hawkins says. “We think that the high altitude regions are some of the places where we’ve seen the largest changes in temperature. This could tell us a lot.”

1. Why was the weather station at the top of Ben Nevis built?

A．To attract visitors to Ben Nevis.

B．To study the formation of extreme weather events.

C．To provide weather forecasts for the whole Britain.

D．To compete with weather stations in other countries.

2. What do Hawkins’ words in Paragraph 4 mainly focus on?

A．The geographical features of Ben Nevis.

B．The extreme climate on top of Ben Nevis.

C．The achievements made by the weather station.

D．The bad working conditions of the station workers.

3. What does Hawkins say about the new observatory?

A．It will take a long time to build.

B．It will need many human data collectors.

C．It will have archives for the old weather station.

D．It will detect climate change at Ben Nevis’ peak quickly.

4. Why does the author write the text?

A．To argue.	B．To inform.
C．To advertise.	D．To appeal.

3 . 课本原文填空。

Exceptional beauty, extraordinary grace and e    1     artistry are qualities     2     Tai Lihua to dance on the great stages of the world in more than 40 countries. If that were not exceptional enough,     3     is more is that Tai Lihua is     4     deaf.

The Battle of El Alamein,     5     in the deserts of North Africa, is seen     6     one of the decisive     7     of World War II. The Battle of El Alamein was primarily fought between two of the outstanding commanders Montgomery and Rommel. The Allied victory at El Alamein     8     to the     9     of the Afrika Korps and the German surrender in North Africa     10     May 1943.

4 . I'm Victor Bobra from Belarus. When I was three years old, a nuclear explosion (核爆炸) blew up in Chernobyl, Ukraine. At the time, I was living on the border with Ukraine.When the explosion happened, my dad, was looking after the trucks at the station. When he heard about the disaster, he took us to Brest on the truck. After that, my family moved to Minsk.

Many years have passed since the explosion. Different places were affected differently. If you live in an area like Minsk, it's not as polluted as other areas. Kids there were born normally. Maybe they were underweight or something, but this was because of the problems of the economic situation. If kids were born around the Brest area, they were, born almost perfectly, because it's the cleanest area in Belarus. But if kids were born around the area to the east of Belarus,most of the kids were born deformed (畸形的).

I don't know much about how it has affected my health. But what happened was that everybody had a medical check-up after the disaster. The doctors found that I had got some protein inside me: So they thought there was something wrong with me, and suggested I should be treated.

My mum set up 'a charity, Chernobyl Children Lifeline, which raised some money for me. I've stayed here for treatment since then. The reason I can't go to Belarus is because of the radiation (辐射). If I go back, I might get radiation and get ill. Certainly there isn't any medical care, because the country is very poor. At the moment I can't even see my parents for a holiday. My parents probably miss me. I think the fault (过失) that Chernobyl blew up is the government's.

1. What can we learn from the second paragraph?

A．People in Minsk were rich before the disaster.

B．Victor Bobra lived in the cleanest area in Belarus.

C．The east of Belarus was seriously affected by the disaster.

D．Kids born in Minsk were underweight because of the disaster.

2. The author's mother built a charity in order to________.

A．provide home for the homeless

B．collect money for his treatment

C．raise money for deformed kids

D．help those suffering from radiation

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A．The author's father didn't survive the disaster.

B．The author lived in Minsk when the disaster happened.

C．The author was given good treatment with the help of the government.

D．The author thought the government should take responsibility for the disaster.

4. From the passage, we can know that________.

A．everybody had a medical examination after the nuclear explosion

B．the doctors did not think it necessary to have the author treated

C．the author's country can afford to provide medical care

D．the author is living with his parents now

5. What is the author's main purpose in writing the text?

A．To prove the great force of the nuclear explosion.

B．To tell readers the nuclear explosion in Chernobyl.

C．To show the bad effects of the nuclear explosion.

D．To find out the truth of the nuclear explosion.

5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Sugar cane cultivation(甘蔗种植) originated in southwest Asia, where Marco Polo reported in his     1     (know) journals that the Chinese used dark brown sugar freely without additional refining(提炼). Sugar can cultivation spread from southwest Asia     2     the Middle East and the Mediterranean trade circle in the twelfth and thirteenth     3     (century).

In the fourteenth century, the island of Cyprus was the location of major sugar farms,     4     (use) Syrian and Arab slaves as labor. Sugar cane cultivation was made a science in the fifteenth century in Sicily, with the     5     (invent) of the roller mill to speed up     6     process. In those times, brown sugar was a byproduct of sugar refining, and wasn't used widely in cooking     7     the people in the sixteenth century found its real value.

Brown sugar     8     (come) into popular use with the rise of European sugar plantations in the Caribbean in the 1700s. It was widely used as a sweetener in English and     9     (it) colonies(殖民地) because it was much     10     (cheap) than white sugar. The use and export of brown sugar from islands rose with the trade.

6 . 阅读短文，根据要求回答问题。

1. In most ways, the English city of Liverpool is no different from other large cities. It is full of people, restaurants, museums, and shops. However, Liverpool stands out in one interesting way. Under the busy streets, there are miles of old tunnels. For many years, the tunnels were nearly forgotten. There was no evidence that the tunnels were real. In 2001, a small group of curious people were delighted to discover that the old tales were true. A huge network of tunnels snaked under the city.

2. We now know that the tunnels were built sometime in the early 1800s. A man named Joseph Williamson designed them. But there is a lot we still don't know. Why did Williamson want the tunnels? Were they ever used? If so, for what? We can only guess.

3. One idea is that Williamson, who was rich, was trying to help others. Many people were jobless at that time, and Williamson was known to be kind. Perhaps he came up with the tunnel project so that he could offer people jobs. Another guess is that Williamson used the tunnels for secret business. The tunnels would have made it possible for him to go places without being seen.

4. Still others suspect that Williamson built the tunnels for safety reasons. Perhaps he was afraid that some type of dangerous event would happen. The tunnels would have offered protection for himself and his loved ones.

5. Some people who study the tunnels have yet another idea. They believed that long ago, people removed sandstone from the land. The sandstone removal would have left huge holes. Williamson may have wanted to fix the holes. Instead of filling them, perhaps he had his workers build archways (拱道) across them. In time, houses and other constructions were built over the archways.

1. What makes the city of Liverpool stand out?
2. List three guesses at why Williamson built the tunnels.
3. According to the opening sentence, complete paragraph 6. (At most 40 words)
(para.6)The ideas are interesting, but no one knows the truth.

7 . In 1944, 730 representatives from 44 allied (同盟) nations met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, just as World War Ⅱ was ending. They were attending an important conference. This mostly forgotten event shaped our modern world because the Bretton Woods Conference agreed on the establishment of an international banking system.

To make sure that all nations would be successful, the United States and other allied nations set rules for a postwar international economy. The Bretton Woods system created the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF was founded as a kind of global central bank from which member countries could borrow money. The countries needed money to pay for their war costs. Today, the IMF promotes international trade by guaranteeing the stability of the international currency and financial system.

The Bretton Woods system also set up the World Bank. Although the World Bank shares similarities with IMF, the two institutes remain distinct. While the IMF keeps an orderly system of payments and receipts between nations, the World Bank is mainly a development institution. The World Bank initially gave loans to European countries ruined by World War Ⅱ, and today it lends money and technical assistance specifically to economic projects in developing countries. Its goal is to “bridge the economic divide between poor and rich countries.”

These two specific accomplishments of the Bretton Woods Conference were major. However, the Bretton Woods system particularly benefited the United States and it placed the U.S. dollar as the global currency. A global currency is one that countries worldwide accept for all trade, or international transactions (交易) of buying and selling. Because only the U.S. could print dollars, the United States became the primary power behind the IMF and the World Bank. Today, global currencies include the U.S. dollar, the euro (European Union countries), and yen (Japan).

The years after Bretton Woods have been considered the golden age of the U.S. dollar. More importantly, the conference deeply shaped foreign trade for decades to come.

1. For what purpose was the Bretton Woods Conference held?

A．To shape our modern world.	B．To set up IMF and the World Bank.
C．To help allied nations to pay for their war costs.	D．To guarantee the success of all allied nations.

2. What does the difference between IMF and the World Bank mainly lie in?

A．Their accomplishments.	B．Their functions.
C．Their founders.	D．Their influence.

3. What does the underlined part “These two specific accomplishments” in paragraph 4 refer to?

A．The foundation of IMF and the World Bank.	B．The international currency and financial system.
C．Currency cooperation and financial stability.	D．Developing countries and the entire word.

4. It can be inferred that________.

A．Bretton Woods increased U.S. economic influence around the world

B．the IMF and the World Bank work closely together to guarantee success

C．the conclusion of World War Ⅱ had little influence on events at Bretton Woods

D．the conference organizers recognized the need for markets to function in-dependently

8 . Brownrigg is a London tour guide and leads walks through the capital all summer long, whatever the weather. His dozen or so routes range in topics from Harry Potter to the London Underground, but all have something in common. “I often end up talking about the weather,” he says. “It’s a national obsession (痴迷). I realised how much it has shaped London’s existence and history.”

Brownrigg’s Discovering Britain walk takes in several of the city’s famous landmarks, from the Tower of London lo the Shard, each stop exploring some of London’s extraordinary weather events.

We begin at the Monument Christopher Wren’s elegy to the Great Fire of London. With its pale stone column topped by a golden orb. the Monument was designed to look like a giant candle. It stands 202ft high, exactly 202ft away from where the lire began in Pudding Lane. Despite its size, the structure is dwarfed by (相形见绌) today’s surrounding tower blocks. Similarly, the causes behind the fire are sometimes overlooked. The Great Fire was a significant event in the City of London’s history, one that was shaped by the capitals geography. The spark was the weather.

As we enjoy some autumn sun beside the Monument, Brownrigg explains: “The summer of 1666 was unusually warm. At that time London was crammed (塞满) with wooden buildings, many only a few feet apart. A long, hot summer left them bone dry. Add stores of flammable materials including gunpowder left over from the Civil War and the city was a giant tinderbox.” It caught a light on 2 September when a bakery oven wasn’t cleaned properly. The inferno (特大火) lasted three days thanks to a strong breeze. Besides fanning the flames, the wind caused more mess by changing direction.

1. What does “it” refer to in paragraph 1?

A．Introducing the celebrities in London.	B．Talking about the weather.
C．Explaining the public transport.	D．Exploring the culture of Britain.

2. What does Brownrigg do mainly in each stop?

A．Admiring the special architecture.

B．Warning tourists of the public safety.

C．Paying a visit to the famous museums.

D．Probing some historical matters with weather.

3. How does the third paragraph develop?

A．By making a comparison.	B．By analyzing the important figures.
C．By offering some examples.	D．By describing the features of the buildings.

4. What can be inferred mainly from Brownrigg’s words in the last paragraph?

A．Showing the materials of the buildings.	B．Expressing the cause of the Great Fire.
C．Predicting the change of the weather.	D．Describing the surroundings of the bakery.

9 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Nicolaus Copernicus was very frightened when he found all his calculations led to the same     1     (conclude) that the earth was not the center of the solar system. Only if you put the sun there did the movements of the other planets in the sky make sense. Yet the     2     (power) church believed God had made the world and     3     that reason the earth must be the center of the solar system.

Copernicus collected observations of the stars and used all his mathematical knowledge     4     (explain) them. But only his new theory could do that. He worked on his theory, gradually improving it. He placed     5     fixed sun at the center of the solar system with the planets going round it and only the moon still going round the earth. He also suggested that the earth was spinning as it went round the sun. In 1514 he showed his theory     6     (private) to his friends, who encouraged him to publish his ideas, but Copernicus was cautious and was afraid of getting     7     (attack) by the Christian Church.

The Christian Church rejected his theory,    8     (say) it was against God's idea. Yet Copernicus' idea is now the basis on which all our ideas of the universe     9     (build). His theory replaced the Christian idea of gravity,    10     said things fell to earth because God created the earth as the center of the universe.

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The horse-head bronze statue lost from Yuanmingyuan in 1860     1     (return) to the site of the former royal resort last Tuesday.

The statue was one of 12 Chinese zodiac animals(生肖). But they     2     (rob) by the invading English and French forces in 1860. Yuanmingyuan was also destroyed at that time.

The horse-head statue is so far the first animal-head statue     3     (come ) back to Yuanmingyuan,     4     was donated by the late Macau businessman Stanley Ho to the country last year, and the National Cultural Heritage Administration recently handed it over     5     the administration of Yuanmingyuan ruins.

The statue will be     6     (regular) displayed in the Zhengjue Temple area. The temple is one of a few     7     (site) that generally remain complete to date. More than 10 million yuan ($1.52 million) was spent by the Haidian district government to improve facilities to ensure its     8     (safe).

Seven of the 12 statues     9     (include) the horse have returned to China, and the rest six are now housed in     10     National Museum of China.